1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method and apparatus for selecting from among a plurality of available programs, such as television programs.
2. Background Art
As new technologies are developed for providing television programming to viewers, the number of television programs available to viewers continues to increase. Broadcast television, cable television, satellite television, and other television program distribution systems such as VCR's, DVD's, and laser disks provide a viewer with the choice of hundreds and even thousands of simultaneously presented programs. With all of this programming it is difficult for a viewer to select the most desirable program from those available for viewing.
In the past, a viewer's options were limited. For example, if a viewer could receive only three or four broadcast television channels, the viewer could easily switch between channels and, within a few seconds, find the channel with the most desirable program. As the number of available channels increased, televisions with remote controls became available. Remote controls made switching between channels easier, but did nothing to filter or sort the available channels or reduce the amount of time needed to preview the available channels.
Printed television program listings have long been available that provide program schedules and brief descriptions. However, with the increasing number of available programs, it has become difficult and inconvenient to locate listings for a particular time and date and to read through all of the available program descriptions.
Chart form printed television listings have been developed that attempt to provide program information in a concise, graphical form. However, the chart form listing leaves little room to provide information about the content of a program other than its name. Further, the chart form printed listing still requires obtaining the listing, physically locating the chart for the date and time of interest, and reading through the program names for each program shown on the chart.
On-screen versions of chart form television listings have also been developed to eliminate the need for a viewer to obtain and look through a printed program guide. However, the on-screen versions of the chart form still suffer from the other disadvantages of the printed chart form listings: little information about a program other than its title is available and a viewer must still scroll through the whole chart to identify all programs of potential interest.
Certain on-screen charts have been developed that use a limited color coding scheme to indicate general categories of programs. The color coding provides some additional information about program content. However, the information available is still minimal, and a viewer must still scroll through the whole chart to find all the programs of potential interest.
More recently, internet program guides have become available. One example of a web page from an internet program guide is shown in FIG. 1. The program guide is presented in the same form as a printed chart, providing time, channel, and program name information. However, the internet program guide allows a user to obtain additional information about a program by clicking on the program's name, thereby activating a hyperlink to an additional information page. Accordingly, the online guide allows a user to obtain additional information about programs. However, it still requires excessive effort, since the viewer must click every title and go to every linked web page, and read every description, to find every available program the user might be interested in watching.
There is a need for a method and apparatus that allows a television viewer to quickly and conveniently identify the available programs in which the viewer has the greatest interest and that allows the viewer to quickly select the program of greatest interest for viewing.